During the construction phase of the interior of a building, door jambs and door trim may be installed on the walls defining door openings to provide a finished door frame before the remainder of the building interior has been completed. Doors for these openings typically are installed subsequent to the completion of the construction of the interior of the building. Consequently, for some period of time, construction personnel, construction materials and equipment must pass through the door openings defined by the finished door frames. Inevitably, some of the door jambs and/or door trim of the finished door frame are struck and damaged by the materials and equipment passing through the door openings.
Consequently, at the completion of the construction of the building interior, the damaged door jambs and door trim must be repaired. Such repair normally entails removing the damaged door jambs and trim from the walls and replacing them. Door jambs and trim must be cut, sanded, and finished by skilled carpenters. Thus, the repair of damaged door frames entails considerable time and expense.
The longitudinal edges of the door jambs and door trim are particularly vulnerable to damage when struck by materials or equipment. In order to protect these edges, some type of guard may be placed over the finished door frame until the construction of the building has been completed. Examples of guards or protective devices for door jambs or for wall corners may be seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,837,787 to Wright; 3,559,356 to Koral; 4,242,848 to Schoultz; and 4,443,508 to Mehl. However, the protective devices disclosed in these patents do not lend themselves to temporary installation of a finished door frame during the construction phase of a building. The structures disclosed in Koral and Schoultz are designed to be permanently affixed to the wall or corner being protected. The protective device of Wright is designed for use with flat walls. Likewise, the edge protector disclosed by Mehl is a rigid device, having flexible gripping pads which are best adapted to engage flat surfaces such as glass.
Although it has been found preferable to construct a door frame guard from a relatively rigid material to ensure that it will withstand severe impacts, it has been found that the edges of door jambs and door trim may be damaged when a rigid guard is utilized because impacts applied to the rigid guard may be transmitted directly to these edges. Hence it is desirable to provide a guard for a door frame, which has sufficient stiffness to withstand severe impacts, yet has a capability to resist transmitting the force of these impacts to the edges of door jambs and trim.
Additionally, it is desireable to provide a guard for a door frame which is inexpensive, which may be installed over a door frame easily, which will grip the door frame without requiring external fastening devices which may be removed from a door frame easily, and which may be reused.